Interview w/ WWE Women's Intercontinental Champion Sol Ruca

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Learn more at windows.com/slash studentoffer. Law Supplies Last ends June 30th. Terms at aka.ms/college PC. Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to another Wednesday episode of the No Contest Wrestling Podcast.

I am. The heel that you love to hate, O'Shea Jackson Jr., aka Petty Gerbro. Hey, yo, it's me, it's me. It's the T-Dou O, the J-I-G-G 2 Jiggy. TJ Jefferson.

Some man. I know I got my Hoochie Daddies on. I know y'all see the shins. I mean, I'm Shin Shay Nakamura right now. All right.

I'm feeling real good about today because we have Soul Ruka. Say it again. Say it again. Soul Ruka Universe.

Soul Ruka. Ruca will be joining NCW today. I had to go to California on it. I got a hoodie on with shorts. I don't know what the weather is.

Current women's intercontinental champion, as she just had that big win at Clash in Italy. Right. Do you think they can enjoy Italy or are they just like focused?

Well, based upon everyone's Instagrams that I've been seeing, they look like, you know, the work. Play balance is pretty evenly distributed. Looks like they're doing the work, but they're also out there having fun. And how could you not tour of Europe? Dude.

And While we will, you know, talk clashing in the league with Sol Ruka, I'm thinking of a different Uh green, white, and red flag. Because My man. My man. The match mask for mask? Between the El Grande Americanos.

Yes. Bro, when I tell you this was cinematic. It was Beautiful. It was beautiful. It was handled the right way.

And TJ. Yeah. I hate to say it. But The OG Americano. It was Chair Gable.

Yeah, you know, I people had said that, and I was like, it's not because Chad Gable's hurt. I don't know, and Chad Gable's not Mexican, but okay, you know, we've been doing this K-Fade for a while. Let's keep it real. Who could have foreseen that? Yeah, let's keep it real.

I remember months ago when you were at Hollywood Park Racetrack. This was about a year ago. You were doing an ESPN hit with, was it what? Oh, over, it was either, I think it was Mason in Ireland. Was it?

No, no, no, no, no, no. It was a Cap of Sedano. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was really around the time that this whole thing started.

Yes. And I was so annoyed with this because I was like, this is so goofy. It was when the whole Gulf of Mexico slash Gulf of America thing started. And I'm like, all right.

So now we're putting this guy in a mask, a little offensive, right? For them to go from that moment to what we witnessed between these two. Yeah. I mean, the long, that's as good of a long-term storytelling as you can get, but you have to think about everything that happened or didn't happen to make this come to fruition. You know, like injuries, Rey Mysterio getting hurt.

before WrestleMania. Right. You know, just different things that like. Enabled people to put pieces in the puzzle and build this beautiful picture. And at the very end, they took something that.

Shouldn't have worked that was a little like, what are we doing here? To what we saw. And it's like, there's a few things. People are like, Oh, this should have been WrestleMania. Let me explain something to you.

This would not have worked at WrestleMania. No. This would not have worked here in America. They had to be in Mexico with those fans that were so passionate about the Lucha history. The fact that they took a Lucha who looked like he was doing it to almost mock them.

Yeah. And switched it to an El Grande who did nothing but embrace the culture. And that, I remember the first time I noticed that the second El Grande, who is now the only one, was getting cheered, I was a little shocked. I was like, really? Getting flowers thrown at you.

They're behind this, but then you saw how much. This character, people are like, oh, he went and learned Spanish. No, bro. You don't just learn. I mean, I don't care how good Lord Jetta Stone is.

This is someone who's known the language, who's known the history of Lucha and Mexican wrestling. This wasn't someone who just got this character and was like, oh, let me read up on this real quick. No, this is someone who had already embraced. The culture and the character.

So, yeah, I gotta be honest, man. It was amazing to see. And I don't know everything about Lucha Libre, you know, like I know Mil Maskaris, I know Rey Mysterio, you know, I know some of the guys that, you know, came over through WCW, but. It's made me want to know even more about Lucha and Lucha history. And I mean, you can look at it, like you had two Caucasian guys pretending to be Mexican, but it worked.

It worked something. And, you know, for it to start where it did with. Chad Gable saying that he could beat all the Luchadors and all of that. And yeah, it was really a weird type of feel. I wasn't digging it at all.

Yeah, it was like, oh, this is kind of dicey. Like, we got to do this right now. And for it to get the legs that it did after a switch. I remember that was the first time I had really laughed because it was like. He looks nothing like Chad Gable.

Like, as far as when they had to replace him after Chad went down. Um, and it was, you know, who we all know. I really, I still don't want to break it.

Well, you don't, because it was the legendary guy who I guess he got sent away. Yeah. So, so, so he, you know, like we all saw what we saw, and I was like, oh, this is hilarious. But. When he went to Mexico and spoke to the people, and we heard that.

That pop. I mean, that's what it was. Him and Dom, I remember that was the big discussion. Like, oh, dude, these dudes are stars down there. For it to get the legs that it has, and also the professionalism of Chad Gable.

to come back and rework things where it's like You know, this might have been what you had to get on TV and do all these things, and now it's kind of got its own legs and it's its own thing that's happening, but you still came in and found good work that could be done. Yeah. The match that they put on was amazing. It had so much drama. It had, you know, the interferences that we expect.

And. For them to end it with uh The the the Chad's family in the ring. And when he took off his mask, his son took off the mask too. It was just so heavy. And The only Grande Americano now watching how he.

Took in the cheers and the Mariachi playing him as he went back up the ramp. And when I tell you, this it felt like the end of a movie. That's exactly what it was, and it was so well done, bro. The best characters, like characters, because right now everybody wants to be a badass and like be themselves, but like as far as people playing characters. Dan Hausen and Grande Americano are running things around here.

Yeah. And like. Who would have thought? You know, who would have thought? It was shocking.

Like I said, I'd never expected it from the way it started to now.

Now the person I would say El Grande Americano, if he had any hopes of maybe taking his talents to WWE. He might be stuck. Yeah. He might be stuck. But, you know, the whole match, the crowd was so into it.

So into maybe the moment of the night, it was when Pimpanella, who I am now really, like I said, getting to understand and know when Pimpanella hit El Grande Americano Gabo over the head with the guitar and then took the mask off. That moment, that crowd pop. Was so loud, it was so insane. Um. And then, like I said, in doing research, I noticed something.

I found something out. Because, like I said, we don't claim to know everything about wrestling. We know stuff, but I'm always down to learn stuff. There was a match in the late 90s between Goldberg and La Parka on WCW. And it was one where La Parka just bashed Goldberg over the head with a chair, did a strut, and he got speared and jackhammered and pinned.

But I'm not sure if it was that match. One of the matches was La Parka. Came up with a bad leg, like he had hurt his leg and got time off from WCW. And what the story is, is that he faked the injury 'cause he wanted to go work some shows in Mexico.

So he made it seem as though he had the bad legs.

So they gave him time off and he went down to wrestle Pimpanella.

So that's how long Pimella's been in the game. And I didn't realize that.

So like I said, this is all great because it's as a wrestling fan, now I get to go back and like do some research and get to learn about the stuff that I didn't know. I didn't realize that Piminella has been in the game for so long. And so I just thought that was kind of like a funny thing to know because we all have seen the Park of Goldberg match but didn't know what happened and who he ended up going to wrestle.

So I just thought that was a pretty cool thing for me to learn. And I wanted to just pass that along to everyone else. WWE has done such an amazing job with the AAA deal. Triple A. And AAA.

And also want to shout out Corey Graves because he is doing some of his best work. With that microphone. By the way, his frequent flyer miles. Does the show in Mexico then flies to Italy overnight? Insane.

Shout out to JBL. Undertaker. Undertaker out down there, you know, handling things. It was so. Entertaining.

It was such a good match. They were like, we got to put this on Netflix. That's how you know you went out there and balled. And it's beyond entertaining. Do yourself a favor and go check it out.

The whole card was great. You know, Ray Fennex ends up winning a title.

Now, both Lucha Brothers have a gold. Yeah, we need to see that happen. And now there's an avenue for. A lot of matches that we're waiting for in WWE can happen down there at AAA, and people need to tune in. Bailey has been down there doing work.

It was a real great time, but I wanted to make sure we started the show with a five-star classic that was the battle of Mass versus Mass. Of the Grande Americanos, man. Shout out to Chad Gable. Shout out to El Grande Americano. TJ, you could say it was a great day for Mexicans of all races.

I guess so. Yes, indeed. But man, yeah, that was amazing. And like I said, to get to where we are now from where it started, I didn't think it was possible. But they did it, man.

They pulled it. They crushed it. They crushed it. They crushed it. And then, you know.

A lot of people might not have seen a mask versus mask before. The way Chad, like you said, you brought up, he brings in the family. This is what they do. They give your full government name, where you're from, what you're about. All of that and they put it on the screen when he was jacked with cable, yeah.

So, yeah, so props to these two. I mean, I guess. It's good to do keep it in K fabe the way We did with Gunther last week when it came to asking about his friend. But you know what? Whatever.

We're not talking anybody now, so just like put it out there. We all know who it is. Shout out to Ludwig Kaiser, man, because everything that we said about this dude. Like Props to him, man. He took something.

That again probably shouldn't have worked. And he crushed it. Allegedly. Allegedly, yeah. I mean, this is just what I'm hearing.

I haven't seen it. Yeah, you know. It's so hard to kind of like, how do we do this? I'm having fun, man. I'm having fun.

I play Bretend for money. All right, naturally. But yes, but shout out to those two, man. It was just a great card overall. We had Clash in Italy as well, man.

Clash in Italy, right, man. Clash in Italy. And I want to shout out. Shade card you. Jade Cargill and this chemistry that she has with Rhea, she's getting better and better.

and better. And she has fully embraced the I'm better than you at everything, villain. The way that she was. Kind of stalking Rhea around the ring, you know, just like constantly on her. She was dominant in a lot of that match.

Yeah. And I could tell at a certain point Both of them are like, listen. I'm a little tired. A little windy, all right? But it was so It was the best Jade Cargill match.

that I've seen. And She gets a lot of shit online. Oh, yeah, it's ridiculous. And now. She has flipped some people.

I've seen the tweets, and you know, all a real hater never gonna give it to you. No, there's still a lot of them, no matter what. Y'all running out of that argument, you're running out of that argument because I don't get what people want. Like, when you have a powerhouse, I'm not expecting her to put on an EO match. Like, that's not what I'm here to see.

You're big, you're strong. I'm gonna just see you smash people. Smash.

So, yeah, there's a lot of people that are still gonna hate on Jay Cargo because. Honestly, it's she's unrelatable. Because you don't look like that. You're not built like that. You don't have what she has.

You'll never be with that attitude. Yeah. Well, come on now. I don't care what you do. You don't have to spend 20 years in the gym to try to look like this woman.

So I get it. A lot of people, I'm not saying I get it. I get that a lot of people, no matter what she does, are still going to be against her. But I get the feeling too that she don't care. Yeah.

She's still going to do what she does. She told us. Yeah. You know, you were hosting guest hosting the Rich Eisen show last week and Jade came on. I don't know if we didn't speak about this because it was after the pod, but yeah, and you know, she basically said, you know, I'm.

gonna do me essentially yeah One. The haters, like you said, are going to hate, but she's just going to keep doing her thing. Jade over here at NCW. We proud of you. You did that shit.

You did that. You did that. But yeah, that was my favorite match of the night. My favorite part, I think, was. As you know, managing maintenance, repair, and operations is never easy.

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So that was gave out game. Yeah, that was a pretty dope move. And so, yeah. People. You know, it's tough, man, because as wrestling fans, you know, we sit here and we're on social media and we see everyone.

Like, I go on TikTok, and everyone's got a wrestling page all of a sudden, and everyone's throwing out their two cents on anything on everything. And it's just like I see a lot of people having a lot of opinions that I just sit there and I shake my head at. Like, you know, so. Yeah, it doesn't matter. People are going to say whatever they want to say.

One thing we know from talking to John Cena is the company. looks at data. And so they see. Who's moving merch? They see who's viewing.

They know what's going on, and they're just. You don't have someone that looks like Jade Cargo and put her in the background, bro. No, no, that's money right there. That's money. That's money right there.

It's inspirational, too. I mean, you know, you might bore. But there's a little girl at home that sees Jade and will never boo Jade. Yeah, for sure. And man, you're getting me to that level, man.

You go up against Bianca. I don't know. We are like, it's crazy. Don't do this to me. But also, Rhea came out on top because, you know, she's, you know, the biggest store, I believe, star that they have in that women's division right now.

So, yeah, Charlotte came out. There were some little.

Okay, let's talk about this. During the match, B Fab and Me Chin came down. B Fab went to go put. Jade's leg on the rope and kind of mistimed it a little, and people were calling it a botch. I didn't because the referee.

This was the perfect time for it to happen. The ref was staring right at her.

So even though the leg didn't get put up right off the bat, it was just like, I'm looking right at you. Right. So that was when you look, Jay's foot moved at the last second. It was like, oh. Like, she went to grab it, and just a quick little twitch.

And she missed the timing. But yeah, the ref's right there, ref, you know, all of that. Yeah, so most of the time, the ref's not looking.

So, if they holds the account, it's like, wait, what's going on? This time, it just was fortunate enough that he happened to be staring right at that spot.

So, it kind of. Took away from anyone saying, Oh, this was a botch. Yeah. People are still going to say again what they want to say. Listen, dude, you do something live.

And with no mistakes. They're like, it's hard to, I had to get on people. I didn't get on them, but I'm doing this new thing. I know, guys, I'd be on Twitter, I'd be going crazy. Yeah, we had talked about that.

I got this new thing that I do. Where? I just put out a statement. And I don't even read. I don't even read it.

So don't read it. Stop Trying to downplay shit you can't do. Like, I get it if we got constructive, you know, criticism of something that you would like to see more or. But like stop acting like you could get out there and Do what anybody is doing from the couch. Like, like.

We are, people lose themselves a little bit in fandom no matter what it is, whether you're talking about. Wrestlers in the ring. Whether you're talking about a certain rapper's freestyle at the roots thing, which was crazy, but Because I've talked to so many people. Imagine. Entertainment.

I know the headaches. I know the worries. I know what goes into it. And I, and like, nobody wanna mess up. And when You have A situation where you are so in your head, because you're worried about what's gonna be said online right after, you're gonna mess up.

You've already messed up, you're manifesting it right now. And Some people can block out the noise. A lot of people can't.

Well, it's tough. It's so damaging to people, but I get it like fandom, you get lost in the sauce. And I, you know, I'm teaching myself, TJ. I can't change people's minds. No.

I can't save everybody.

So. The stuff that I put out there. Those who need to hear it, those who need to read it, read it. Those who that information wasn't for won't get it. And that's fine.

You don't feed a baby steak. And I just got to accept that. I'm trying to be better for y'all. You know, you see what I do for you.

Next, we got a few more matches because we still got to talk about Raw, and we got Seoul. I don't want to keep Seoul waiting. Yeah, I mean, let's not, because I think she's ready for it.

So. Fans of the No Contest Wrestling Podcast, allow me to quote Channing Tatum to you, Jay, when I say, You know how long I've been waiting for this? All right, now our next guest, she's got the wrestling world in the palm of her hand right now, one of the most exciting superstars out there. When she's not hanging 10 on the surfboard, she's standing 10 toes down in the wrestling ring. She's kicking ass and taking waves.

She's a former NXT North American women's champion, former WWE speed champion, but now she is the new. Women's Intercontinental Champion around here. We call her WWE's Universe. Ruka in the building. How you doing?

Doing great. That was awesome. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Man, nailed it.

Because the pressure was on. Like, if we wouldn't, if you'd have messed up, she would have just logged off right now. No. We have been fans of you. You know, around here, we were the hub for NXT for a long time.

So we've been supporting, been fans of you. Glad to finally have you here. We've done our research on you and. Is it true that you didn't get into wrestling until you were already in it? Yep, that is 100% true.

I mean, I like I have very minimal like information on WWE. I uh babysat some kids that had all the action figures, they had the rings and they would you know try the moves on each other and they would try to teach me who all the people were. At the time I was just trying to make sure that they were safe and not hurting each other.

So I wasn't really invested into that. But then once I got The DM asking for a tryout, that's when I kind of did my deep dive and I was like, oh, like, I didn't know that this is something that I could do. Like, I had known of like, obviously, John Cena and The Rock, but I didn't know that it was something accessible to someone like me.

So once I got that opportunity, I was like, hell yeah. Let's do it.

So do you when was your what was your welcome to wrestling moment? You know, people tell us that first time hitting the ropes or they they let us know a a bump that might have knocked them on the ass a little bit.

So what w do what do you have a welcome to wrestling moment? Yeah, I guess the tryout as a whole, especially like the last day, because the last day they had some of the people that were on the independents have matches and whatnot.

So that was the first time I ever saw professional wrestling live. And I just thought it was like the craziest thing ever. And I thought it was really, really cool. And then even just the whole tryout itself was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done. But it was also such a cool experience.

And it was so fun because everyone felt like. a team and everyone was like cheering each other on and that was kind of what I was missing at that point in my life because I had been an athlete up until then and I had graduated and didn't have that anymore and then being in the PC and being around people who are all trying to strive for one goal it was just like this is where I'm supposed to be. You know, she's an Oregon duck. Yeah, Chucky Ducky. I'm a I'm a I'm a hold on hold on now.

I'm a USC Trojan. I can't I can't even as much as I love the O, O'Shea, I love the O, but you know, fight on, fight on. I won't hold it against you.

So talk talk to us, soul. Like, tell us what was what was little soul like? What was life for you growing up as a as a little one? I mean, I was I was in gymnastics my entire life, from ages six all the way up until Graduated high school, then went to Oregon, all that. I had a lot of energy.

I was all over the place. My parents bought me like. beam that I had outside. I had like some mats and I taught myself a lot of gymnastics moves and whatnot. My mom was also a coach so if I ever needed help I would ask her.

I have an older brother. Him and I were like best friends growing up. I always loved playing video games with him and I definitely was more like a tomboy and I just I loved just being active and being outside and trying new things. All right. We we have a a friend of the show that we haven't been able to have on yet.

Um our buddy Seamus. You know, and I watched your episode with Seamus, you know, his Celtic workouts. TJ, when I tell you she abused this poor man, it was like, okay, he was as a stronger. Come on, dog. You like, it was.

He didn't even tell us that. Dude, like, she does everything on a handstand, and he can't do that. You know, like. Just your your athletic feats. have been just nothing short of impressive.

Um What like I know that you have this love of heights, and I've never heard someone say that.

So, what's going through your mind when you're thinking of new stuff, new moves to try? Obviously, the soul snatcher is. I mean, I wouldn't think to do that.

So, like, where does that that love for that adrenaline come from? Yeah. I honestly don't know. I feel like it's just been something that I've always kind of had. Even before I went to, or before I was on NXT, before I was assigned to the WWE, I was doing social media full time and that was kind of my job.

Was like a part of it was just me trying to do like these trendy like flips and tricks or just something that you know got engagement with with my athleticism because that's kind of what I knew best. I was also doing personal training on the side, but I was living in Hawaii at the time, so I had a lot of A lot of things that I could play around with, like doing flips and tricks in the beach and doing cliff dives and whatnot. And I think that's just. kind of always been a part of my like childhood, always like, you know, learning how to snowboard, learning how to skateboard. I just love like learning new things and just pushing myself and trying to be the best version of myself and just kind of like keep evolving as much as I can.

You ever heard somebody say they love heights? Very few people, and they're usually, you know, there's something off sometimes, but she doesn't seem like there's anything off. You know, what we see on about you is that title on your shoulder. What is for somebody who kind of got thrown into it. Learning as you go.

What does it feel like to have such a in WWE, the Intercontinental Championship is like prestigious.

So, what does it feel like putting your head on the pillow as Intercontinental Champion of the World? It feels really good, I'm not going to lie. It is definitely like a confidence boost. I know I've said this on multiple interviews since getting this title, but it is a confidence boost to know that. you know, they see something in me and that this is you know this is where I'm supposed to be and it is tough because I know a lot of people do think I am just a rookie and they think that I don't have what it takes or it's too soon or whatever whatever but I mean I'm the one sitting here with the interconnected championship and I think it's right where it belongs.

So we brought up the name of the movie before The Soul Snatcher, and like you said, no one's really seen anything like that before. Where did that come from? What made you decide, wait a minute, if I do this and I do this and I can hit this? Like, I remember the first time I saw it, I must have, it was on Instagram. I must have replayed the video five, ten times because I was like, what the heck did I just watch?

So, where'd that come from?

So, when I was thinking about a finish, obviously, I wanted something that I could do on anyone, no matter if they're bigger than me, smaller than me, something that was unique to my background, something that is just like unique to me and you don't see every day.

So, I was kind of brainstorming, going through my head about some of the things I used to love doing in gymnastics and how I could. Translate that into wrestling. And that's kind of where the soul stasher came from. It is an old move I used to do on the bars called a straddleback, where essentially I'm doing a reverse gainer where I'm moving backwards, flipping forwards instead of moving forwards, flipping backwards, if that makes sense. And now instead of catching a bar, I'm catching humans.

So that's kind of where it came from. And where what about the name? Like who where'd the name come from? Um I believe I heard it in a song, and I was like. That's it.

That's tight. Inspiration. It really is. Anywhere, man. Anywhere.

It's like that, you know, just like one of those RKO type moves that out of nowhere. Out of nowhere, yeah. Just don't, you just can't be loomering around, you know, and like those are. Devastating. It's all a devastating finisher is always a great way to go.

And, real quick, since we're on the name thing. We've heard many stories about how people have come up with their names. Where did Sol Ruka come from? Um, so in NXT they have us send in like five first names, five last names, um and then they kind of will give you a few option options based on that. And uh yeah, when I was putting in the names I kind of just wanted something That fit my gimmick in a sense.

I feel like my gimmick is myself.

So, something that you know is beachy, a little bit edgy, a little bit different.

So, Sol obviously means sun, and then Ruka, it is the name of my favorite surf brand, but it also means like in slang, it's like um like chick or you're like your girl.

So It's like some lady, some girl. You know, something like that, a little different.

Well, so it's great that she didn't pick like Elizabeth or Betty because the Betty snatcher, you had to have that soul in there now. Me and you agree on.

something uh near and dear to my heart. TJ the best sandwich ever made Okay. Is the cheeseburger.

Okay, so sure. Do you not agree? If it's not one, it's up there.

So, yeah, I'd love to meet a good cheeseburger.

Now, I saw that you know you like your sweets and things, but I saw you say that you love a good cheeseburger. Do you have a what's your favorite? You've been around the world and aye aye. Where's some good burgers at? Yeah.

Okay.

So I grew up in California, so I do love In-N-Out.

However, I don't think In-N-Out is like the best burger in the world.

Okay.

I think In-N-Out is very nostalgic and it has its own taste to it. Like, if you want an In-N-Out burger, you want an In-N Out burger. Yeah, when you come to visit, you have to. Yeah, exactly. But I do think there are better burgers out there.

Like, I think Shake Shack is a pretty solid burger. Also, the Hangry Bison out in Florida, they have very, very good burgers as well. The Hangry Bison. I've never heard of that one. I mean, I gotta go now.

Put that on the list. My family, they got a list, bro. The best burger I ever had. Is that the highest in Australia? In Sydney, bro, I was like, oh my goodness, like, especially for a hotel burger, yeah, solid, dude.

Hotel burgers better be good because they're charging you 32.50, right?

So if you know, if it ain't, if it ain't, they don't come correct, then there's an issue.

So yeah, so we got a list. We're very, we're enthusiasts, you know, we're enthusiastic. Cheeseburger enthusiasts.

Now, um, you know, I got an eight-year-old daughter, girl, dad, girl, dad, and so we rock with Disney songs pretty heavy. Oh, I need your top five. You knew this was coming.

Okay, top five. Um The oh my gosh, I'm so bad at like names of songs off the top of my head, but the The first one, Aladdin. Yeah. I think it's definitely my number one whole new world? No, no, no, not the world.

No, no, no. The one. One jump for sure. I'll be doing research. Ugh um Ooh, this is so hard.

I'm going to go with The song in Princess and the Frog, where she's talking about her. Dad? Oh my god. I wish I would I wish I knew the name. Almost there?

Is that it? Uh yeah, I love that one. Ooh, and the one in Hercules. Um, the, I think it's again like the first one with the goddesses singing. Yeah, and the intro of Hercules.

By the way, they carried that movie.

Okay, that's three. Uh I'm gonna go with Um The one in Moana, the The one where she's singing about basically the whole plot.

Solid, solid. Um. And the last one. I love the spot. Mm.

Come on. Um, does Brother Bear Countess is that a Disney movie? There's a picture of it. There's Brother Bear. Brother Bear.

Oh, yeah. Sad ass movie. That movie, man. That movie will get you, man. But the one that Coda sings is really cute.

I like that one. All right, solid. I will have my daughter judge this when it airs.

So I'm assuming you are a big Disney fan and she is. Oh, bro. First of all, Mulan, listening down to business to defeat the Huns, be a man. Scar, being prepared. I could go off, TJ.

We'd be in the car having full concerts.

Okay.

Yeah, absolutely. Hash that girl down. I just listened to Big B in the car, but yeah, yeah. Yeah, you would. You know, when I first saw you, so I think my question was, I'm looking at you, I saw you were obviously incredibly athletic and gifted, but I wasn't sure someone, and we had a discussion once, I was like, how would you describe the character of Sol Ruka?

So I'm asking you, what is the character of Saul Ruka for someone who doesn't know and is just like, you know, becoming, you know, introduced to you? Mm-hmm. Like I said earlier, I think. The Stanley Cup final on ABC is more than a quest for the cup. It's 134 years of putting it all on the line and the heaviest 35 pounds ever lifted.

It's broken curses and broken hearts. But for those chasing it, it's everything. The only question is: who will take it? You just have to watch the Stanley Cup final presented by Geico on ABC and the ESPN app.

Soul root guy as a character is myself, but you know, a little dialed up a bit.

So, definitely laid back and chill. And I don't think, don't take things too, too seriously.

However, when you know it's necessary like i will clap back and i will act accordingly um I'm high risk, high reward. That is like my go-to. I'm also, I feel like a quote that I kind of live by is: jack of all trades, a master of none, but better than the master of one. I think that kind of encapsulates who I am. I feel like I am very.

good at learning new things and like getting pretty good at a bunch of different things instead of just sticking in one lane like sticking at being just a high flyer like i want to evolve and eventually you know do more grappling stuff like i want to be that person that can evolve at all times Yeah, you don't usually see someone with the height that you have, you know, being a high flyer and On this show, we you know, we we got nicknames for everybody, but one that You know, we talked about together a few times. Is I see a lot of superstar by the name of Lita, you know, call you young Lita.

Now, Through your studies, How much Lita have you seen? You know, what are the videos that you're watching as you collect the history, as you are knee-deep in it now, the Intercontinental Champion? Yeah, I mean, I definitely have watched a bunch of Lita stuff. I think she's so cool. She's such a badass, and I definitely pull from her.

Same with like Jeff Hardy. I feel like I get that as well. But it's kind of that like extreme, but like kind of edgy, but they're also like. You know, they like, they're not like chill, but they're not the ones that are always like the loudest. Exactly.

And I feel like that is. Who I am in real life, and I try and bring that into my character as well, and also like be similar to them, but also be in my own lane and be completely different and the same.

So last year it standed deliver. You were holding the speed championship, right? But you then competed in a six-woman ladder match. For the women's NXT North American Championship, I know this because he and I were sitting in the front row, you know what I'm saying?

So we saw it.

So, can you look back on that and what it meant? Because that was such an awesome match and. You know, the story between your then friend Zarya and you at the top of the ladder, which you know, you did what you had to do. I wasn't mad at you. Everyone, people might have been mad, but somebody had to win that battle, right?

So, uh, what can you take us back to that? Like, what were your feelings? And I'll still want to O'Shea's. Questions. What did it feel like to go home that night with that title after such an amazing match?

Yeah, that moment, like, every single time I have an interview and someone asks about that, I get, like, emotional about it because it was just. It was such an incredible moment, especially. I think there's a picture of me like holding the title up on the ladder, and like everyone behind me is on their feet. But yeah, I had come back from an injury and just to like Shoot. Every time.

Why do I keep doing this? Because you're a jerk. I don't.

So I'm telling you, this is like the fourth. I don't mean to do this to people. It's the glasses. I keep telling you. Yeah, but it's just a testament to just the tenacity and just how much hard work I put into this.

And it just like finally paying off and having that moment with someone like Zarya, who, you know, before we went out there, we both agreed, you know, someone's got to win. It's going to be either of us.

So, like, Whatever happens, happens, Ruby will be fine afterwards.

So it was just an incredible moment to just share with all those girls and just with the whole. NXT universe and WWE universe to like Have them see my journey from being on level up to being injured for nine months and then to being a double champion. And the energy in the arena. Like when you snatch that title, I mean, the pop was huge. I I think this also goes to say, you know, a lot of times people who aren't into wrestling or don't like wrestling will ask the question.

You know, like, well, why are you into it so much? Because it's not. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look at her. Right.

This is real, man. This is real emotion. This is real feelings. And so it's amazing to see her have that reaction because. Like I always say, the people who don't like wrestling, there's no answer I could give you as to why we love it so much, right?

But if you do like wrestling, there is no answer that I need to give you. You just get it. And I think that says a lot right there, just that emotion, even a year plus later, you know.

So it was, yeah, it was awesome. It was an awesome moment. We definitely popped for it for sure. I noticed that you said that she snatched the title. Did you do that on purpose?

It wasn't by accident. I like you. I like what you'll be doing around here. Low-key, low-key. No.

You know what I mean? With the success you've been having. You know, success is not, the road to success is not a straight road. You know, there are things that. Turns everywhere.

I want to give you the opportunity to give a shout out or give flowers to. The people Who are the people in your life? That have helped you on this journey, that without them, we don't have. the sole ruca we see before us to day. I mean, obviously my parents and my brother, they've, you know, shaped me to be who I am today.

You know, they were the ones that were going to, you know, every single gymnastics meet and, you know, supporting me when I wanted to draft back some tumbling and getting me to college and then even supporting me here and coming to as many shows and matches as they possibly can.

So definitely. My whole family, my grandma, like they sent me a video. I don't know if you've seen it on social media, but they're watching the match and they like, yeah. It was just really cool, and they've always been so, so supportive of me, no matter what my decisions are. Do want to give a shout out to Zarya, even though you have some.

Some beef. I would love to end up tagging with her again. I do think we need some time apart. But I mean, I think the the moments that her and I had throughout Our time in NXT, I felt like both of us grew so much. And all the moments we've had together have been some of my absolute favorite moments in wrestling so far.

Um and then Shout out to you know Sean Michaels, Triple H, Coach Bloom. Honestly, the whole department that helped get NXT to where it is today. If it weren't for them, I obviously wouldn't be here because, you know, they didn't really bring in athletes before my time.

So, you know, them opening up this new way of getting. Other athletes into this professional wrestling world has given us so many more opportunities to continue our athleticism, continue being a performer. And that's what a lot of us want to do, especially if you can't go pro. Like, I couldn't go pro in acrobats and tumbling, so there wasn't really a big option for me after this. But you know, this came along and it's worked out great so far.

So I'm just really thankful for NXT as a whole. Are you surprised? I mean, you've been doing this four years, so it's not that long, right? Are you surprised by the success, though, that you've had? I would say yes and no.

I feel like yes. I am surprised just because it is a whole new world and with You know, I'm I'm a pretty shy person, so the whole like being a character and the promos aspect of it, I knew it was gonna be really hard for me to get. I thought that I would be able to pick up the The physical bits are pretty relatively easy just because of being an athlete and having to be coachable my entire life. Um but yeah, I guess like in a sense of I am surprised at how much I've grown just as a character and just being comfortable in the ring and in front of people. But I'm also, you know, I feel like I'm pretty confident in my physical abilities, so I feel like.

that in a sense like checks out. Got the photo right there. The point. Yeah, the point, man, the infamous point. one month on raw, four years on in.

I mean, that's That's you know, that's high praise from the guy, yeah, you know, the guy. Um I gotta ask um You got your devastating moves. I'd like to know this from superstars. What is a move or moves? We know they all hurt.

What's a move you hate taking? Cool. Honestly, a hip toss, and that's why you'll never see me take it. That's why I always land on my feet. I hate that.

Not today. What about the hip toss do you do you hate so much? I think I just like... I get so much height on a hip toss, like if I want to take it good. that it's just like I'm falling from so high and like It's just so much easier for me to land on my feet.

That I don't know, just hip tosses are just not fun, and sometimes, like. With other people's height differences and stuff, like the timing can be off and then you land all funky.

So, yeah, I'd rather just land on my feet than actually take it. I'm gonna show you the episode I'm talking about where she abused Sheamus. She does these like box jumps. She gets real high. Seamus be like, I saw clips on his Instagram, but I haven't seen the whole thing.

Bro, he's a survivor. This is an ultimate athlete. Man.

Now, I want to make sure we got time for this, time for you to think about it. This is our number one question here. Or NCW. You're in a bar or on the beach On the beach, enjoying yourself. And there's 50 people there, 50 ladies who.

Don't believe. In Seoul Ruka. The Audacity. The Audacity. It's our Intercontinental Championship.

You know how some haters are out there. Yeah, they don't want you on their beach. This is their beach. They like the waves. They want you out of there.

I need you to pick a team of you and four other superstars. to make sure Sol Rukin's making it back to the car. Uh does is it just like women or is it anyone? We've had ladies pick ladies because all this. We've had a man pick a woman, but we've never had.

But we don't want a bunch of dudes. But you know what? You're out there, you're surfing. Let's look at this way: you're surfing at someone else's beach. You ain't local, you know.

And so it might be mixed-match people at the beach. It ain't just a beach of all ladies. But we don't want men fighting women.

So let's just go all over. Yeah, yeah, all ladies, any era. Um Okay, I'm gonna go Lash Legend. 100%. She's my girl.

Trick says she likes to fight, so. Yeah, I mean, I don't like to fight, so I'm just gonna be like, yeah, here, here, I'll just be aiming her on in the background. Lash Legend, I'm gonna go Rhea Ripley.

Okay.

Um I'm gonna go with I feel like AJ Lee, I feel like she can get scrappy. Puerto Rico in the house. Um Okay. I'm gonna say Nijax. Oh yeah, that is extremely solid.

Yeah. Bro. Easy. Shouldn't even be an argument.

Solid, solid. I love that. I love that. So, I mean, you know, you got the title now. Which means you got the target on your back.

What's next? What's on your mind? Where, you know, you got people focusing on this. Queen of the Ring tournament, but like you got to know that the eyes are on you. We saw uh Lyra come at you, you know, we saw like.

What's wh your head is on a swivel? What's next for Sol Rukin?

Well, I definitely want to have this match with Lyra. It's not official yet. I mean, I need to talk to Adam Pierce and make sure that everything's good to go. I mean, I definitely want to be a fighting champion, like I said on Raw. I want to, you know.

Give this title a good run. I feel like I didn't do my title runs justice in NXT just because of. what all the stuff that happened while it was champion um so i want to kind of You know, do a little bit better this time around. Um, and yeah, I want to defend it as much as I possibly can. Um, I definitely want to stay focused and um.

You know, I am also in the Queen of the Ring tournament, which is going to be really exciting as well. But definitely main priority is doing right by this title, for sure. Keep an eye on that Becky Lynch. She doesn't take losses too well. You know, she does not.

So, yeah, it's someone you've definitely got to know is coming back for you, right? Oh, yeah. I got, yeah. I got it.

Now, now, so you also design your own gear, right?

So, like, where did this love of fashion come from? Is it something you've always been into, or was it out of you know, necessity? Like, I don't want to pay that much for a pair of tights. You know, I can do it myself. I guess it's kind of both.

When I was really young, like I would always change my career goal. Like anytime anyone would ask me as a kid, like, oh, what do you want to be when you grow up? It would change all the time.

So I went through a phase where I wanted to be a fashion designer. I got a sewing machine. I learned how to use like one stitch and then never used it again. But like there were times where my dad, like, he was getting rid of a pair of pants or something like that. And I was like, wait a second, I'm going to turn that into something.

Cut it up, use safety pins and whatnot, made like this whole like dress and this little like. Headband situation. I think it's on my mom's Facebook somewhere. But yeah, I feel like I've always just kind of been interested in that kind of stuff. I feel like I like.

Being hands-on, and I like making things, and again, just like testing myself to see, like, oh, maybe I could do that. I feel like it's not, you know, that hard, I'll teach myself. Um, but when I got cleared from my ACL injury, I needed gear and I needed it way quicker than I thought I did. And so, I was like messaging around people trying to figure out if they could, you know, do something for me. No one could, so I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna go.

Buy a sewing machine today and I'm gonna figure it out. And I figured it out. And it wasn't the best gear I've ever seen in my entire life, but it worked. And I feel like I've gotten so much better since I started. But yeah, it's kind of a bit of both where it's something that I've just kind of been interested in, but also I kind of needed to at a certain point.

So yeah. You know, Teaser, when I hear When I uh it got she got my mind working.

Now we we see Jade Cargill and Rhea Ripley, they have gotten a a nice bit of chemistry together. When she's talking about making her own gear, You know who I think of. Of course. I mean, a Bianca Solruka match might go crazy.

Well, we're going to see it at some point. You got a dream match that you're waiting to happen?

Well, I was EO for the longest time. I did have a match with EO. I would love to have many, many more with her. But now I would love to have a singles match with Charlotte Flair. We've had multiple person matches, we've had tag matches, seen her in the ring in other situations, but we've never had that like one-on-one moment.

So I think that's my next goal. Definitely coming. And that kind of plays into a question I want to get in before we let you out of here.

Now, you know, once you're NCW, you're NCW for life.

So that means you're part of the family. As we like to say, we let you know where we keep the spare key when you come over, let yourself in the house, eat whatever's in the fridge, put your feet up.

Now, what we do have, though, everyone knows, is. not everyone knows 'cause we try to keep it on the download, but we've got a DeLorean time machine in the garage, right? And we're gonna let you take it. But the only stipulation, Sol, is you have to take this DeLorean and go back in time. And we need you to pick five women from any era that you would have a WrestleMania dream match with.

Which five women would you uh utilize this time machine? Oh my gosh. This got me really thinking on this one. Yeah, we're doing a hard-hitting question. You know, we're journalists.

You know what I'm saying? Mm. Alright, I'm definitely going to say Lena. I would love. A match with Lita.

Oh, Lita, I'm sorry. Um Definitely Michelle McCool. Oh, okay. I think she's one of the, yeah, she's just a huge inspiration to me as well. Let's see.

Can I like do a specific Like Masha's already happened that I'd go back in time. Do whatever you want.

Okay, I would love to go back in time and be in that triple threat with Rhea. EO and Bianca.

Okay, making a four-corner. Um What was that, three? You got Lita, Michelle. We now have a fatal four-way. Yeah.

Um I feel like I want to have like a sick like ladder match. But I can't think of like everyone that I want to be in it, but I just want it to be like a crazy, some sort of yeah, like ladder match with. Yeah, just all the the people that I just mentioned are like, you know Yeah, that Fatal Four way. She took a lot of her. Screwed myself.

Well, actually, we can let that count because there's three and then two. That's good.

So that's five. And I'm one of these. I'm good with words, bad with numbers.

So, yeah, the fact that I counted that.

So we got Lita, Michelle McCool, Leo. Bianca and Rhea. Rhea. Yeah. There it is, right there.

That's it. We don't have to overthink this at all. And guess what? I'm buying tickets. Yeah.

And I'm going to sit in the front row like we did. I mean, she could compose. Yeah, I mean, that's true. You know, put us on the list. And we understand you got intercontinental champion things to do.

Yeah. So you are always welcome back here at NCW. Much power, much love to you. And yeah, keep killing it out there. This has been Sol Ruka.

Thank you for your time. And Sol, I read that you said something about online fans. and some negativity, please. Don't waste a moment of your time because there's always going to be somebody out there who's breathing, who's talking out the side of their neck, you know, with a neck beard and just trying to get your attention. I like to cuss them out.

Yeah, so don't pay attention to that. The people love you. You're killing it. You're still pretty new to the game. I mean, the sky is the limit for this woman here, man.

So please don't let those jabronis online who are probably just trying to get your attention hold you down. You're holding gold for a reason, you know. Exactly. Thanks, guys. Appreciate you.

Absolutely.

Soul Ruka. Soul Ruka, everybody.

Well, you could get a Barbara Walters moment out of anybody, can't you? I swear. I felt so bad about that. I didn't expect, like, sometimes I do dig, right? And I'll try to find a moment that maybe, but man, that just goes to show you, like I said, how much that meant to her.

Just that real moment. It was real. It was a real moment.

So. I the skies, like I said, skies the limit for soul. And and like I said, Not that she has to listen to me or will listen to me, but like we talked about earlier in the show, there's always going to be those people who are going to hate on you for whatever. But the people that count in the business. You know, they obviously have big plans for her.

They obviously see the potential that she has to be, you know, great.

So I hope she doesn't ever let anyone like hold her down. Don't you put your phone down. That's the easiest thing to do if you find yourself getting overwhelmed with. You know, hatred, especially someone who's not looking for it. You sometimes on Twitter, you want to smoke, you embrace it.

But when it deals with someone whose work, who can tell, is just a really nice person, which is out there trying to succeed and doing a great job of it. Yeah. You know? And we're, you know, it's not. It's not to the fans who are just being fans, and you know, we're gonna say we're gonna talk about the things we don't like.

Yeah, but sometimes that's all right. But there are people out there who will, no matter what happens, are looking to just be vicious. They can go to hell. All right. You you living in that pocket.

You getting enjoyment out of just no matter what happens, you know, you're just about to be a dick. I ain't got nothing for you, bro. And I don't want to make this sound like we just like everything. Because there's stuff that I don't like, but I choose maybe not to just like. Shit on every time.

Because when your props are due, yeah, because going back to clash, right, there was something I didn't like. Like, I enjoyed the fact that. They started the ESPN footage with two world championship matches, which is great because, again, if you're that new fan, if you're like, oh, I've never really watched, you got to see two world championship matches kick off the free part of it. One thing I didn't like, and we spoke about this before the interview, the leg under the rope thing, Cody and Gunther, right? They had their match.

And it's going on. And at the end of the match, Cody goes for the pin. Gunther's leg is under the rope. Technically there shouldn't be a count at all. But The ref counted, and then at the three mark, Gunther lifted his leg up.

And I put on Twitter, I'm like, optically, it would have been better for him just to leave that leg there to point it out. All right. So now Gunther kind of has his. His point of well, my foot was under the rope, right? But then to try to do the same thing the next match with the girls and put the foot up on the rope, it was just kind of like.

Come on, you can't do the same thing in back-to-back title matches.

So, yeah, I didn't love that. I didn't hate it enough to go on a rant on social media about it. But, you know, this is kind of our ranting spot. I just feel like that was a little bit lazy. You can't do the same thing in back-to-back matches.

Like, there could have been a better way to. You know what? I didn't even think of that. I didn't think of that in. In time, you saying it now.

makes me think like about the people who are Being introduced to wrestling. and like giving it a shot 'cause they could just catch it on that ESPN. It is weird to see the same thing happen back to back at a time like that. I thought you were going to go the direction of like. I don't know if I would have put that.

Had that finish for Cody Gunther on the free one. You know, and But then it's like, what do you trade it out for, Roman? You know, what are you trading out for? I think you probably, if I was running things, I would have had Oba and Brock because Brock is the name that a casual fan might know more than anyone else.

So you might have had just that super heavyweight battle, which we'll talk about. Maybe I would have put that on. I mean, again, you got to entice. Every now and then, the trade, you got to lose some trades. You know, you know how that.

That Brock and Oba is a fairly quick match, you know?

So. I feel you. I feel you on that. Once again, hindsight is 2020. You know, we're just speaking from a real constructive place, not just being like, this company is not doing it.

I'm out of here. Like, you know, that, that. We're not abandoning shiv, it's just like things that we see. I guess we should go right into Oba. Yeah, how did you feel about that?

Well, you know, I'm glad, like I said, I'm always glad we have a few days to kind of simmer down from something like that. Which is also great for your responding as a fan. Yeah, so initially Oba wins at WrestleMania. We think we're getting the retirement. I thought it was perfect.

Then Brock comes back. He puts the beat down on Oba, and we don't like that because we had been building Oba up to be this monster. And so now they have this match. Right, where you had to kind of feel like they were going to give the dub. To Brock, but let's just see how it goes about the trilogy.

And I feel like, all right, Brock jumps Obo. Yeah. Uh hits him with multiple F fives. Oba keeps fighting back, which is what you expected to see. Puts him in the Kimora lock, something we've never seen Oba have to hold him on the ground.

Yeah, so we've never seen him in that position before.

So it was interesting. I think. At the end of the day, I was more okay. I was okay with it than I thought I was going to be, simply for the fact that I have to look at it like this. If you take every.

top wrestler in the in the federation Since 2002 Every single one of them has taken an L to Brock Lesnar. Yeah. Name somebody: Rock, Cena, Undertaker, Triple H, Randy, like go down the list. Every single man. who has been a top dog.

has taken that L to Brock.

So I look at it like, okay. There's that. Even though I didn't necessarily want Oba to lose, it is Brock Lesnar, right? I have more issues with maybe. Oba losing the Ricky.

In NXT, even though I like Ricky, but I think I have a little more issue with that than I have. This is Brock Lesnar, man.

So, if anybody brings that up, Oba, you just, you know, you underestimated, you know, I didn't sleep the night before.

So, yeah, it was. Did I think it should have gone a different way? Maybe, but that's just my thought. Like, I'm not running this thing. But at the end of the day, I didn't hate it as much as I thought I would.

And now we get set up. For you know The trilogy, most likely at SummerSlam. But also, I was. I was pleasantly surprised on Monday Yeah. Because as I put on Twitter too, this crowd seems louder for Oba today than they were before.

So it's like, as long as he hasn't lost any of his aura, as long as the fans are still behind him because they popped for him, the fact that he came to the ring and just started beating people down right off the bat and then hit his pose. Yeah. You know, that all was amazing.

So I don't think that Oba's lost. Any of us are, at least, which is what the complainers say every time. Oh man, buried, buried. You just learn words from wrestling documentaries and come to Twitter. Like, relax, dude, chill out.

But I want to give points to. I want to give points to Brock because part of me feeling okay. was how he was selling.

Okay.

Fear showing fear showing like hold on there's like Him running away? Like Brock Lesnar trying to get a count out. That's crazy, you know? And so, kudos to him as a performer to still, even though you know you're going over and you're in control of the match, to look like you're not in control. Yeah, I mean, people say what they want about Brock, but when Brock wants to sell for you, when he wants to put you over, and I ain't never seen him give somebody this much love, you know, and.

there are still things Kay Fay like there's Him Getting the jump on Oba during his entrance. Back on Raw. To him getting the jump on Oba during the ring announcing. I still had to like catch him off guard in spots where I really shouldn't hit him. Exactly.

I really shouldn't hit him right there. It's not, you know. When have you ever seen Brock Lesnar feel the need that he had to get the jump on somebody? Got to get the jump on him. Or, yeah.

Yeah. So, you know, what was it? At one point, it was five F5s, and I was like, well, technically, you shouldn't be getting up from five F5s anyway. But I don't know, Oba. Oba just, so I had this weird thought, Shea.

We're like, what if we see Oba training in the next few weeks? Like. We don't know what's going to happen in this King of the Ring. A lot of people think Oba could win. A lot of people feel like maybe Brock interferes to cost him the King of the Ring.

But we all kind of know we're going to get that third match, right? But what if we do like a training montage where Oba's working on his ground game? Like, what if he's in the gym and showman's showing him how to, you know, maybe working on this jiu-jitsu? Maybe. Maybe fall up Chad Gable.

Right. So it's just like, I just, I had that random thought because once you locked in that Kimura, you shouldn't even be able to survive that. I've seen him break all that weight. Think about all the arms he's broke and messed up on that. Yet Oba still was able to persevere.

So even though he took the L, I don't feel like it hurt him because he still came out looking like a beast. And I guess, and maybe that's just my hope. No, that's how I saw it. Where I'm thinking, like where my head is trying to wrap around is, Don, can we look at that graphic that King of the Ring? Uh brackets real quick.

We see here that Olba advanced, beating Pinta Uh, well, look at this one. Pinta Solskro and Carmelo Hayes on Raw. Which was a fun match, by the way. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I loved it.

Now, you know, next, we got. The Priest Williams Breaker in Mysterio Hold up. It's gotta be, like, you know, and we'll get into it, because it looks like Braun is hurt. We don't know how hurt he is, but moving forward. It kind of seems like Oba should be fine in the next round.

But the the winner of this whole thing gets a championship match. At SummerSlam. Oh, I didn't think about that, right?

So, like, how can like Oba moving forward?

So, that means there's no way he can win. Oba's winning that one. I didn't even think about win, right? But you know, is there a world where like What are they going to do about that? I'm not the first one to notice.

Yeah, a lot of people have been saying that. I didn't put two and two together to make five like you just did. Yeah, so I'm really worried about that. I need to see how they're going to make that work. Because we know that Is there a world where Brock goes past SummerSlam?

Yeah, we know. Hey, I didn't think he'd come back from Mania. What the hell do I remember? But it's just something to look out for from your boy O'Shea Jackson Jr. I mean, yeah, I mean, there's a chance.

Oba's, yeah, there's no way Oba is going to get a title before SummerSlam.

So, right. I didn't. Is he going to like. Try to like, hey, let me get that match before SummerSlam. That's a good point, I even think about it.

So, that is the King that they automatically get that SummerSlam. Yeah, you know, the word is, you know, you read on a lot of blogs that maybe Brock does cost him, and I think. Maybe that is. But then, who, if we could put that back up, who do you see winning this tournament, man? You got Seth Javon.

Tala Tonga and Ricky Saints on the one side, and then we got J LA Knight. Royce Keys and Finn Balor. Like, this is wide open. I mean. I'll tell you right now what I think talk to me then TJ Just looking at this.

SummerSlam's one of the big four. Yeah. Probably the second one. What's the biggest match that you can make? looking at this.

I I see A final mm. I see I can see Jay Uso advancing, Seth Rollins advancing. I can see LA Knight after his conversation that he had with Adam Pierce. being upset that the bloodline is moving on. costing J.

Uso His match against Rollins, and I see eventually. The tribal chief versus Seth Rollins at SummerSlam.

Well, thank you because that's exactly where I was going with this. That's what I see. I see. Marquee matchup. Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship.

That's my first blush looking at this because you're right, Oba and Brock, if that's what we're looking at for SummerSlam, then obviously Oba's not winning this tournament. Um. But what does Cody do? You know, you know, we saw Roman at the end of the rod basically telling Jay to go, you know, go get Cody's belt. Let's see.

So. And I feel like that conversation is what. On top of LA Night talking to Pierce. gives LA Knight enough like character reasoning to be like They're just going to get that one too. And like having to take Jay out that tournament.

Because him and LA Knight have some, like, remember, it wasn't all good between them. No, Jimmy's fine with most, but Jay's. Yeah, yeah.

So, like, they got prior beef to that. But I can see from LA Knight's character. Oh. This is just going to be them trying to get Cody's title now. I gotta not let him beat Seth.

And so I I I see where that drama can and now you got You know, a bit of mid-card drama between Jay and L.A. Knight. Rollins versus Roman. During Romans 1316 days. He technically lost to Seth because of disqualification because he hit him with a chair.

When was the last time has Roman ever technically pinned Seth? No. Because Seth, Seth is their boy.

Okay, so I think that is Paul's boy. Obviously, that would be huge as a WrestleMania main event.

So maybe that's not for SummerSlam, but eventually they love a SummerSlam. I love SummerSlam more than I love WrestleMania. Yeah. SummerSlam always got something juicy. It does.

Every single time.

So yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Seth Rollins is the king of the ring, and he challenges Roman, and then we'll see. But who knows? Who knows, man? How annoying if Seth is king of the world.

I love it. I know. I love it. But that's what we're doing here. We just fantasy book.

Yeah, we all do. And when it don't go your way, don't overreact. But speaking, let's see.

So we got that. Let's talk about. I don't know what you call it. Where do you think I'm going? That women's tournament Well, yeah, we might as well bring that up right now.

Oh, you weren't even going there. I done trapped myself. I was going to go a different route, but you're right. We just talked the men's tournament. Let's look at this women's tournament.

You know, we had the first Fatal Four-Way go off with Roxanne, Roxanne, EO, Julia, and Lash Legend. And I got to be honest with you, man. That crowd pop for Julia was amazing. Yeah. you know and i for a second i thought okay maybe they'll maybe they'll put julia over um But it's EO.

EO gets the win. Um Lash just looked so dominant because she's so much bigger than those brother three. It was just like, how does this woman not? win this but man she um People are going to have to get ready, man, because the Last Legend era is going to be coming upon this soon. And if you don't like it, if you're one of those online that don't like it, that's.

that's on you because she's just too big too strong too good To not hold gold, solo gold, at some point soon.

Now, you know, Sol Ruka talked, you know, she talked to us about. Her and her thoughts on Queen of the Ring. That Fatal Four way is crazy. Cargill, Flair, Valkyrie, Ruka. Man.

Yeah. That's insane. Like who comes out of that? I'm guessing.

Okay, it probably won't be Seoul because she's already got a title, right?

So Seoul's a champion. She's good. Lyra, I don't know. It seems like they lost faith in Lyra at some point.

So I'm not sure. And that leaves us Jade and Charlotte.

Now, the thing about it is, Charlotte's been without. Yeah. Individual gold. She's had tag team gold, but she's been without solo gold for a long, long time. Jade was just the women's champion.

Um, so it's going to be interesting to see. I guess if I have to. make a pick, I think that Charlotte's gonna end up going over. Um But then you have, you know, what's Alexa Bliss gonna do? Like, there's because at some point, Charlotte.

Alexa. Rhea, they've got this little thing going. This can't last. No, it can't.

So it's gonna implode at some point.

So I think I'm gonna look for Charlotte to win that bottom bracket. And then to the other bracket, we've got Bailey. Mm. Let's see, JC Jane, Kiana James. in uh the hard r Michael Rodriguez.

If I, you know, I know what you want your heart. Yeah, Bailey should go, all right? But we know what's going to happen. Oh, my goodness. They're going to give it to JC Jing.

Yeah. I mean, that's yeah.

Okay, like. I I I feel like Raquel could use it. Bailey needs it. Kiana should. But it's going to JC.

We're going to give it to JC.

So then we've got. It's got the numbers game, too. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I was avoiding this side of the bracket. I'm going to let you just go ahead.

So then we've got the top bracket. What we have, we've got Liv Morgan, Becky Lynch, Alexa Bliss, and Chelsea Green.

Now, we just spoke. Liv Morgan's already. The women's world champion, right?

So A great question, right? Yeah, a great question. And then we've got Becky, we've got Alexa, and we've got Chelsea. Who needs it? Liv and Becky don't need it.

Alexa Or Chelsea could use it. Alexis, what? She's a five-time champ already. And remember, before I told you, before we went to Stanford for 2K, I was always like, oh, whatever about Chelsea, great. Then I met Chelsea for two minutes and I was like, give her everything.

Give her everything. Give her everything. So. Maybe? Does Chelsea come out on top there?

I mean, but just think about, think about. What you can sell You said Charlotte wins that round. Alexa Lynch. Becky versus Charlotte, one more game. One more time.

Right. Winner goes on to the finals of Queen of the Ring. This is what I like. One more time. I like it when you.

don't have the answers. Obviously, in front of your face. I don't know what's going on. But I know one thing for sure: you weren't really sure why I champion Liv Morgan was in this. And you put this up on Twitter.

Pretty simple question. You know, you put this up on Twitter, and it was a simple question, but maybe you should have watched your tone a little bit. Tone? And you can't tell tone. And Liv gets to be in the queen of the ring.

You said, Did they just show us that Finn Balor is going to SmackDown? Which Liv did? And Liv gets to be in the Queen of the Ring? Doesn't the winner get to have a championship match?

Now, you throw a bunch of stuff out on Twitter. You never know who's going to see it. Maybe you know a lot of people see yourself, but you never really think that maybe the person you're talking about is going to see it. But you posted that, then all of a sudden, Olivia Morgan, I don't get to be in the tournament. I am the tournament and I want it all.

And that Liv Morgan laugh, which is pretty funny. And then you had to respond with ah, effort. You got it, OG. But I saw this. I'm at Twitter.

I'm on Twitter. And I'm looking at this, and I see you tweeted that, and then she tweeted that, and you tweeted that back. And I'm like, oh, you. Just Fold it just like that. You fold it like wet origami.

Let me tell you something. When you're talking to the daddy-o, you might as well just relax. I'm just happy to be here, ma'am. Thank you for coming on. No, it was an immediate fold.

Like, you were just like, whatever, man. If I could believe The Undertaker is some superpowered zombie, I could, all right, whatever. You can be in the tournament. You just let Liv Morgan just fold you up like that, though. Absolutely.

A hundred percent. Yep. What am I doing? It's happening. I mean, you could argue back.

I ain't arguing. That lady nice to me. You could have taken a stand. Nope, I fell down. Fell right down.

But I'm just wondering, you know, it makes me wonder where Vicar is hurt. I know, but like, I don't know how hurt. I don't know how hurt Johnson Reed is. I don't know how hurt. Braun Breaker is now.

They got him limping in the lobby. I don't know, TJ. I miss Stephanie. I could tell you that. She's sorely missed.

Right. Bronson Reed, he's just posting daily updates on Twitter. You saw him in a commercial. He's just getting bigger and bigger. Come on, man.

So, yeah, this is. I don't know where either of these is going. And that's where it should be. Yeah. I don't know.

I know. I know where we going was at. I don't know where we gonna be at. You might you want to tell the people where we're going to be at? I don't even really know what you're going.

I thought we were ending the show. Nah, because there's one thing we haven't talked about. Oh. Tribal combat. Oh, can't end the show.

without getting into this yes The tribal combat matches Roman and Jacob. And, you know, without completely going over the match, if you haven't seen it, you should watch it. But Roman goes over. Yeah. He wins.

No. Outside interference. No shenana hannigans. Cool now. Just those two going out there and banging it out, pausing.

Wow.

Well, I think I because someone else would have said, why didn't you?

So I just. That was crazy. But yeah, man.

So now Jacob has to. Acknowledge Roman. Yeah. And Monday Night Raw. Roman and the Uso start the show.

Roman comes out like he's Matthew McConaughey here. He's like, all right, all right, all right. They have him standing there like Michael at the Super Bowl. Right? And they was just, man, basket it.

Roman. And then Jacob comes out and he, you know, had some words for Jay. Said, I ain't. And Jay is on one right now. But yeah, the bottom line is he took a knee.

Not only did he acknowledge him, he took a knee and acknowledged respect. And then as they're leaving the ring, we see the MFTs over there. Right. Jacob. Looking like they bought tickets.

Right. Jacob looked a little torn. Roman's like, go get his ass. And Jay's like, you know, let's go.

So now he walks to the back, and Roman's just talking that talk the whole way back. QB1. Yeah, man.

So. Roman was feeling himself. Jacob feels a little. Look at that. Look at Jacob in the back, just not happy to be there.

I can't believe it. But look, man, he stepped up. He took a chance. It didn't work out for him. And now you have to, unfortunately for him, you've got to fall in line.

You know, you could have kept doing what you were doing. But you you decided to shoot for the stars. Which I'm not mad at, because sometimes you gotta do that. But now, you know, you you're part of it. And now we've got everybody complaining.

Are we going to see another Bloodline saga? You know, how long is this going to drag out? I don't know. But all I know is this. If Jacob is really going to be into this.

Everyone else is in trouble. Yeah. Okay.

Everyone else is in trouble. It just depends on how you gave Megatron a nuke. I have no idea what that means, but I know Megatron is like the top transformer. I don't know what a Duke is. A nuke.

Oh, a nuke.

Okay.

Yeah. You just gave it to him and like. He just got it on the hip now. He want to do something. A lot of people have their, the naysayers, have things that they are saying.

If you buried Jacob, Jacob. This is that the third dawn. Darn in the back, he's not happy, buddy. Darn in the back was not happy. Not happy, buddy.

He says he thinks Jacob looks like Willie Lumplum, and I would never say that out loud. Oh my God. Mm. He's just mad. You know, it just happened.

He took a shot and he fell. It just happened.

Now, There is no world where you bring back Roman reigns Have crowds around the world, and I mean around the world chanting OTC. OTC. And you Take out the TC. You you give the ulafala It's Jacob. That was not.

Gonna happen. in Italy. And it it It looks worse in my opinion. To have Jacob not be a man of his word, somebody like Jacob, as real as Jacob is, as genuine as Jacob is. You have somebody like him Sour puts himself out of not being a man of his word.

Twice. Because he was supposed to do this after the first loss. Was he? Yeah, you was supposed to come and acknowledge Roman Reigns. He did it.

He wasn't having that. Jay tried to tell him in the parking lot: hey, no, no, man, you need to fall in line.

Alright. Never mind. After that. He did the you know the last the last Hail Mary Tribal combat. Didn't happen again.

You have to have him be a man about his loss.

So the acknowledgement has to happen. Where Where the juice is, where the steak and potatoes, like where, where. The meal can happen. His reli Jay and that loud mouth. That loud mouth back and forth, back and forth constantly.

Solo getting in his ear. Yeah. There are still holes in the armor to release the werewolf. It's not just going to be all good. And I know somebody like him.

He gonna want some gold. If I'm Pinta, I'm a little nervous with my intercommunal championship, you know, because once the bloodline starts. flowing through You know they love that picture of them. when everybody got some hardware. The vision right now, you hold on to them tag titles.

you know with with a with some dental floss yeah right logan gone We don't know where Braun Breaker's health is right now. Bronson Reed is out of there, and Austin can't have both titles. Unless Paul put on a onesie and get in there, they got to get him up.

So it is if Braun's hurt. If Braun's hurt. We've seen hopefully those of him. Yeah, we. Big Brown Breaker fans here.

Yeah, I can't afford to see him hurt again. Yeah, not again. You know, and it's. If he is hurt, knock on wood. We got some real wood right here.

Okay.

You know, now I'm questioning my own moveset. You know, how can I protect myself? You know? And the explosiveness of Braun Breaker is why we called him the future. But you know, the videos of him in the lobby, you're just worried.

I don't, you know, we got our friends down there, but we don't have anybody that close to let us know what's really going on.

So it's all speculation. To people who don't know, there was a video going around social media of Braun going up to, walking up steps to what we think is a hotel and definitely having a noticeable limp. Yeah, using the luggage is literally.

So it's kind of, you know, as Braun Breaker fans, it's kind of unsettling because the man just got back. You're hoping maybe, you know, you know, just something, maybe you got a cramp. Maybe, you know, you're just. A cramp will take you down, people. By the way, just out of nothing, when we were in Pittsburgh for the draft, I was walking back from Cam Hayward's draft party across the Roberto Clemente Bridge.

Addicts, a bridge that I've walked across hundreds of times being from Pittsburgh, and I got a cramp in my right calf shape. And I had to lean against the brick. There's thousands of people. My right calf started to cramp. I had to stand there.

I was on the phone with somebody. I stood there and stretched for like five minutes. started to walk my left half. Oh, it was hot. Yo, bro.

It was. I literally almost fell face down on the Roberto Comene bridge with thousands of people walking around about to beg God for a win. Yeah, I was. Oh, I did. I was like, Lord, please, please.

But yeah, that's not for nothing. But yeah, so hopefully, Breaker's okay because this whole vision thing, man, it's starting to seem like a curse. And it seems like everyone is getting injured in the. The order that they got put into the group is just very weird, but we never want to see anyone get hurt. You know, I saw when Logan, when Dawkins landed on Logan's arm, I could tell during the match that that was just an awkward.

Awkward land, and then it turns out ripped tricep.

So, yeah, we're hoping to. That's the real deal. Yeah, that's because they showed my man his. That arm looked like a smoker's. Yeah, man.

You know, I'm not like a big Logan Paul fan, but I don't ever want to see anyone get hurt, man. Especially someone who you could tell, the dude's putting in the work. No matter what you think about him, whether you're a fan or not, it's obvious he's trying.

So obviously he's invested in this.

So it sucks to see him get hurt. And we're wishing, you know, a speedy recovery for him. But. Let me get that one right here. D-lo?

Prepare the bleep. Mm-hmm. Logan Paul is a f Inspiration. Oh, gee, okay. That's all I had to say.

That was it? Yeah, Andy said it didn't hurt. That shit hurt. I'm pretty sure it hurt. But yeah, we got a lot to look forward to.

Like I said, I like the fact that nothing is really obvious. We still don't know who's going to win either of the king, queen, and the rings. We still don't know where this Oba Brock thing's going, but we know it's not finished. We're hoping that Braun Breaker isn't injured. Cody and Gunther, I don't think this is over because Gunther does have his excuse that his foot was under the rope.

Therefore, the. The constant even started. And that rematch is big for SummerSlam as well.

So, oh, yeah. Remember, I just said what we do. Yep, there it is. Come on, don't forget. You know, you can just use the hand closest.

No, but like, I don't want to hit you with the left. But it's fine in this case. Because then you got to, you know, normally you stick out the left, and I ask for the other hand because that's the right hand. Yeah. But so, yeah, I love it, man, because.

Whether you're happy or not happy, we still don't know where all these things going. All these storylines are still kind of open. We don't know what's going to happen with the bloodline. Roman apparently is sending Jay after Cody, but he tells Jimmy, at one point, does Big Jim just go like, hold up. Like, what am I just in?

Want to buy an asshole? I mean, yeah, but like what like you know you're Pushing Jay ahead and you no one's trying to give Jim. At what point does that affect Jimmy to the point where he's like, nah, man, I'm over this. Not playing second, third fiddle anymore. That story's still out there.

How's Jacob going to respond? What's up with the MFTs? LA Knight, what's he going to do? And then, like I said, we have the tournaments. They're wide open.

Oba Bracka said.

So, yeah, there's a lot going on and a lot of questions that need to be answered. And we're going to have those as the summer goes along, man. Just like, Jimmy, you know, we love you, but. The only titles you've taken away are Naomi's. Oh, wow.

Ah! Wow.

I mean, you have a point, but wow, I'm just hurt. Yeah, I mean, because and that's real quick, because I want to bring, because I've been very hard on SmackDown, very hard on SmackDown. But There's so many people who are injured or taking time away to start families that when that wave comes in of superstars, of vets, because you know, NXT will pop them out easy. But of the vets. I feel like a shift could happen.

And I was thinking of vets that could really help SmackDown. Kevin Owens, we miss you, man. I miss Kevin Owens, just somebody that I know I could trust to go out there, give me a good 20. Yeah. You know, of entertainment.

Drew McIntyre, same thing. Drew Randy Kevin Owens would have SmackDown on fire. Yeah. And we we we miss you. We miss you very much.

You know, Charles Montgomery, maybe switch him over to SmackDown. Yeah, because I mean, he had that belt. He ain't had another one.

Well, he's had both of them. I mean, but he didn't have Cody, the gold, the undisputed. Oh, right. He needs that. Not in this very broad.

But he needs that. It'll be something interesting to see. But once again. TJ Jefferson.

We don't know where anything's going. No. But we know where we'll be. Yes. So, can you tell the people what you're doing?

I sure can.

So. To all you podcast listeners out there, you can find us anywhere you listen to your podcast. We're on ESPN, we're on Amazon, we're on Apple, we're on Spotify, we're anywhere that you listen to a podcast now. We'll be on your mind, yes, indeed.

Now, if you want to watch this going on, and you trust me, you want to watch Soul Ruka, let's just be honest. You go to YouTube, go to the Rich Hodges Show YouTube page, just type in no contest wrestling, and you'll be able to see every episode from one to this one, which is episode 88 deep, brother. We're on the Michael 88, 88. We're Club 88, we're Michael Irving, we're CeeDee Lamb, we're Drew Pearson, we're Des Bryant, Crazy 88s, Crazy 88, and then where else? Oh, yeah, social media.

If you're on Twitter, X, you can find us at There's No Contest on Instagram, No Contest Wrestling Podcast. I'm sorry, it's so long. I tried every other variation and just couldn't get it. And on TikTok, No Contest Wrestling Pod, just pod, not the full podcast name. And yeah, we'll be in all those places.

And TJ, as we are twelve episodes away, I just want to put out a reminder. For our one hundredth episode It would be great. If we can get DeWaib. I just want to put it on the internet so his mentions get flooded. We want Dwayne for a hundred.

Because we want to start the show and we want to hear. Yeah. God, that was so good. We weren't even looking at each other, too. I was hoping that we would be.

We're so in pocket right now. But, you know, there's also we have other legends that we've reached out to. We got other white whales. Yeah, that's got someone.

Somebody who I've been emailing, hoping to get on the pod soon.

Someone who we heard there's a chance we could possibly have to go visit them somewhere where the climate is very dry. Yeah, got that beverage from LCD. Yeah, beverage, and like there's a chance of maybe we might have to go to them, which is fine. I'll take a road trip. But yeah, man, we got a lot of stuff.

I'll walk if we can go. I ain't walking because I've already interviewed them a few times, but I ain't going to walk. I'll take that drive. No other job. But yeah, man, it's, you know, we're happy to still be doing this.

88 episodes. And we thank all you guys for rocking with us. And appreciate the love that you show us. I got to share a quick story today. You, every Wednesday, you come onto the Rich Eyes and show a little bit early.

So we end the hour with you. We talk up, chop it up about whatever's going on. You and Rich were together at a premiere. It was the premiere of Mandalorian and Grogu. Mandalorian and Grogu.

And so Rich said something. We weren't together. We saw each other. We saw each other. So Rich said something today.

And how it was like two weeks ago, right? Two, three, two. Oh, two, three, two, three.

So Rich said something today that he never mentioned to me. And Rich says a guy came up to him. And he said, I want to thank you for hiring TJ Jefferson. And of course, I'm like, wait. How are you like, how are you not telling me this?

And Rich is like, so I just assume that he's one of the million people that you know in town because you know everybody. I thought he was one of your friends. He goes, and so I ask him, Oh, are you friends? Do you know TJ? And he goes, No.

I just love the no contest wrestling podcast. And I was like, yo, man. That is pretty cool. That is really dope.

So, yeah, we thank everyone for watching and rocking with us and listening and sending in your thoughts, your suggestions, even if there's things you don't like. We see them, we'll take them into consideration. And yeah, man, 88. Got him up real nice. Yeah, 88 episodes.

Sol Ruka, O'Shea Jackson, TJ Jefferson, ESPNCW. Man, love it. And to that guy who said, thank you for hiring TJ and not me. I hope you have a good day, but not too good, because who the hell do you think you are? Yeah, but by hiring me, then that's how you buy Ms.

Parker. That's see, it wouldn't have worked unless I got here first. Yeah, I heard you, though. You know what I'm saying?